Tag: Patrick Cockburn

Every week the Truthdig editorial staff selects a Truthdigger of the Week, a group or person worthy of recognition for speaking truth to power, breaking the story or blowing the whistle. Here are 10 Truthdiggers from 2014 we think are worth reflecting upon at the end of the year.

The Bush administration and the CIA tortured al-Qaida suspects because they wanted evidence that linked Saddam Hussein to 9/11 and could be used to justify the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Middle East expert Patrick Cockburn writes at The Independent.

Unembedded Middle East reporter Patrick Cockburn describes the political and economic facts that enable Isis to continue its sweep through Iraq and Syria, and explains why a defeat for the group in the Syrian city of Kobani would not be the beginning of its end.

Two months after the United States began airstrikes in Iraq that expanded to Syria, Islamic State is poised to gain control of more than half of Syria’s border with Turkey. Independent reporter Patrick Cockburn and Iraqi Guardian journalist Ghaith Abdul-Ahad discuss the “massive military failure” of the response strategy.

This week on Truthdig Radio in association with KPFK: Patrick Cockburn on James Foley’s murder and the rise of the Islamic State, Dennis Kucinich on the militarization of police, and Joshua Rofe on the 2,500 teen lifers in prison.

This week on Truthdig Radio in association with KPFK: Patrick Cockburn on James Foley’s beheading and the rise of the Islamic State, Dennis Kucinich on the militarization of police, and Joshua Rofe on the 2,500 teen lifers in prison.

A New York Times article glimpses America’s role in creating the leader of ISIS—the violent Islamic group “redraw[ing] the map of the Middle East”—and confirms the line by English poet W.H. Auden: “Those to whom evil is done do evil in return.”

In a terrifying excerpt from his essential new book, “The Jihadis Return: Isis and the New Sunni Uprising,” veteran Middle East correspondent Patrick Cockburn describes the native barbarous forces overcoming Iraq and the surrounding region, and the kind of society—thanks in large part to the failed U.S. intervention there—they look set to build.

In a report that seemed to escape everyone’s notice, Independent writer Patrick Cockburn describes the “spectacular resurgence of al-Qa’ida and its offshoots… despite the huge expansion of American and British intelligence services and their budgets after 9/11.”

The Syrian civil war has given rise to a wave of kidnappings and ransoms as desperate members of the opposition movement struggle to support themselves and their cause, Patrick Cockburn writes at The Independent.

“As a journalist, no one tells you something because they like the look of your face, generally,” the Independent reporter told Truthdig in an exclusive interview. “They tell you to further their own interests or the interests of their party.”

In a sad farewell note to the country he spent a long time covering, reporter Patrick Cockburn describes how ordinary Syrians struggle to survive amid a seemingly interminable civil war stoked by foreign governments pursuing their own interests.

“The best hope for an end to the killing in Syria is for the United States and Russia to push both sides in the conflict to agree to a ceasefire in which each holds the territory it currently controls,” Patrick Cockburn writes in The Independent.

Syrian rebel organizations inside the country have disowned their political leadership outside Syria, saying the exiled group does not represent them, and demanded that half of the leadership positions be filled with fighters within the nation.

Iraq will be plunged into a new war if Israel or the U.S. launches an attack on Iran, Iraqi leaders have warned. Iranian retaliation would take place in Iraq, said Dr. Mahmoud Othman, the influential Iraqi MP.

The militia leader’s threat of an “open war” between his supporters and the U.S.-backed Iraqi government has ratcheted up tensions in Basra and Baghdad. [In this analysis, columnist Patrick Cockburn of The Independent looks into the current situation in light of Sadr’s history with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.]

One of the UK’s most seasoned reporters (The Independent, Financial Times) discusses the dangers of working as an “unembedded” journalist in Iraq and looks at the prospects of war with Iran. (A Counterpunch magazine video interview) Part 1,Part 2